binaryadj.n.

1766 T. H. Croker et al. Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. (new ed.) I The cubitus..is composed of a binary number of bones.

1835 W. Swainson Geogr. & Class. Animals §250 Binary or dichotomous systems, although regulated by a principle, are among the most artificial arrangements that have been ever invented.

1885 J. Lecky in Proc. Philol. Soc. 19 Dec. A stress-group might have a ternary effect when only containing two syllables, and a binary effect when containing three.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke Annot. sig. *2^v That circle..with the binarie cipher following it, signified the lesse mood perfect, and time vnperfect.

1609 J. Dowland tr. A. Ornithoparchus Micrologus 50 The Song is..[to] end in a Binarie measure.

1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 454 All measure was then, as at present, reducible to two standards of proportion, the Ternary and Binary, or perfect and imperfect, which we now call Triple and Common Time.

1875 F. A. G. Ouseley Treat. Musical Form 70 Handel's longer airs are written in..the ancient binary form.

1802 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 92 481 The binary sidereal system which we are now to consider.

1878 J. N. Lockyer Stargazing xxiv The binary stars, those compound bodies, those suns revolving round each other.

1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. Pref. 12 Acidiferous substances..and their binary combinations with oxygene.

1833 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 365 Mica-schist..is a binary compound of quartz and mica.

1863 H. Watts Dict. Chem. I. 42 In 1816 Dulong proposed the theory, since known as the binary or hydrogen-theory of acids.

1816 R. Jameson Treat. External Characters Minerals (ed. 2) 211 Binary,..when it [i.e. a crystal] experiences..two..decrements by two rows.

1796 C. Hutton Math. & Philos. Dict. (new ed.) I. 206/1 Binary number, that which is composed of two numbers. Binary arithmetic, that in which two figures or characters, viz, 1 and 0, only are used; the cipher multiplying every thing by 2, as in the common arithmetic by 10: thus, 1 is one, 10 is 2, 11 is 3, 100 is 4, 101 is 5.

1823 J. Mitchell Dict. Math. & Physical Sci. 327/2 Therefore 1810 = 11100010010 in the binary scale.

1858 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers (1889) II. 527 Certain binary quantics, viz. the quadric, the cubic, and the quartic.

1860 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers IV. 604 The number of variables (the function being homogeneous) is denoted by the words binary, ternary, &c.

1861 T. Lund J. Wood's Elem. Alg. §367 When the radix is 2, the scale is called Binary; when 3, Ternary; when 10, Denary or Decimal.

1871 A. Cayley in Messenger of Math. V. 53 A covariant of the binary form U.

1898 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers (Suppl.) 78 Tables of Binary Quadratic Forms.

1929 L. E. Dickson Introd. Theory Numbers v. 63 The function q = ax² + bxy + cy² is called a binary quadratic form.

1941 D. H. Lehmer Guide to Tables in Theory of Numbers 37 These tables give the primes also in the binary scale, or rather in a condensed form of binary scale.

1957 Encycl. Brit. I. 607/2 Forms in two variables are called binary... Consider a binary quadric:—f(x) = x²₁−x²₂.

1876 S. R. Koehler tr. W. von Bezold Theory of Color p. xxiii The other colors of the spectrum are called secondary or binary, since..each is composed of two primary colors.

1919 H. D. Eberlein et al. Interior Decorating ii. ii. 192 The primary colours are yellow, red and blue, and the binary colours (those composed of two) are orange (yellow and red), violet (red and blue) and green (yellow and blue).

1937 Discovery July 217/1 Binary colours, that is to say, colours obtained by combining two of the above [sc. the primary colours].

1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. I. i. 14 It is mainly by this simple process of division into two, or binary fission as it is called, that reproduction or multiplication takes place in the Amœba.

1910 Encycl. Brit. IX. 317/1 The division of the nucleus is effected by the process called binary fission; that is to say, it divides into two, then each of these divides simultaneously again into two, giving four nuclei; each of these after a pause again simultaneously divides into two.

1933 Mind 42 203 a × b, or simply ab, is the result of a binary operation on a and b.

1951 W. V. Quine Math. Logic i. 13 Conjunction and alternation are binary, in that they combine statements two at a time.

1956 A. Church Introd. Math. Logic 33 A connective is called singulary, binary, ternary, etc., according to the number of its operands.

1946 A. W. Burks et al. Electr. Computing Instr. in von Neumann's Works (1963) V. 42 An accuracy of ten decimal digits requires at least 40 binary digits.

1946 Electronic Engin. 18 373/1 The internal working of the machine will be entirely in the binary system, in which a number is represented by a series of 1's and 0's, the 1's being pulses and the 0's the spaces between them.

1948 Electronic Engin. 20 209 For mathematical reasons..it was decided to make provision for 34 binary digits in each number.

1948 C. E. Shannon in Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. July 380 The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey.

1951 Electronic Engin. 23 140 Binary numbers can be conveniently represented in electrical circuits.

1953 Sci. News 30 83 Elemental areas of the track magnetized with positive and negative polarity represent the binary digits.

1957 Encycl. Brit. XII. 350 a/1 The simplest type of choice is a choice from two possibilities, each with probability ½... It is convenient to use the amount of information produced by such a choice as the basic unit and it has been called a binary digit or, more briefly, a ‘bit’.

1921 E. Sapir Lang. ii. 25 We may..analyze the words sings, singing, and singer as binary expressions involving a fundamental concept of subject matter (sing), and a further concept of more abstract order.

1953 C. E. Bazell Ling. Form 6 The modern fashionability of the binary opposition.

1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. ii. 34 These distinctive features [of the phoneme] consist of binary, two-valued oppositions or contrasts, such as voiced/unvoiced, high/low, rounded/unrounded.

1965 Sun 2 Nov. 11/5 The present Government have decided..to establish what they call a binary system of education. On the one hand would be the universities and the colleges of education. On the other hand would be the local authority regional and area colleges of technology, cut off from the universities and getting their degrees and other diplomas and certificates from a quite independent source.

1969 Listener 27 Mar. 414/1 People complain of what they call the binary system of higher education. It's quite wrong, we're told, to set the universities apart from other institutions of advanced education.

1973 Nature 5 Oct. 231/1 Binary weapons open up the possibility of getting rid of the stockpiles of lethal nerve gases that are now stored in army depots throughout the United States.

1980 Sci. Amer. Apr. 34/2 Requests by the U.S. Army for funds to build production facilities for a new generation of poison-gas artillery projectiles, called binary munitions, have been rejected by Congress and the Administration.

1981 Observer 19 July 6/9 The two men shipped binary liquid explosives from America through Britain to..Uganda.